Urgula Frequency Wars EP Bricolage Records | The Electro Review

Urgula
Frequency Wars EP
Bricolage Records
Out 21st February


Bricolage return and fans of Kill Them With Noise will be pleased to know their hero is back with more music. This latest incarnation of the techno power-house from Glasgow brings us a more science-fiction and exploratory version of what we've learned already. Where the future is revealed through the medium of cutting-edge sound design, techno music puts it to rhythm and unleashes the waves on unsuspecting listeners. This snappy EP makes use of the new direction with three originals plus a couple of remixes to finish the cake.


With zaps and shifting drums, the music begins. Synths with electronic static sounds build through with abstract Jungian melody like bees in an oscillator. Then, a breathy tone is unravelled. It breaks through the fizzing like a dose of clean water before the rhythm builds up with more variations on the clicking, tapping patterns pinned together with bass. This then builds to become a stand-alone sound, throbbing dives with nods to dub-step plug the gaps and bury the evidence. Drums rise once more, changing all the time and adapting nuances and emotive edges with every few bars. Use Of Weapons is exciting and spins like a circus act on ropes, sticks, and acrobats.


This is followed by Battle For The Magnetic Fields. Shiny cymbals scatter luminous shimmers through a stereo landscape while synthesiser growls and howls with distortions of nature. A Morse code style rhythm enters, to be replaced by random and heavy-duty lasers. Reverberating drums with far-reaching tone cross boundaries in ever pressing vibes. Steady flowing tempo is layered and adapted in chapters of sound that consistently beat yet sound dissimilar and intellectually challenging. Deep and cavernous thumps dance with evocative cymbals until close.


Next, an astral wave of effervescent shine glows from the silence. Computer sounds and moving parts clamour together in a programmed dance. The beat coalesces with the atmosphere as the melody shifts like light behind moving clouds. Spaced out tones fly in various sonic directions as the rhythm builds into dropping drums and shattering cymbals. Scavengers at Station 11 is like a far-out fantasy based in some variant future. The drums evolve and open out like pages in a book, notions of harmony whisk through giddy spaces while persistent thumping drums continue to plot the course.


The music ends with two remix tracks. Battle For The Magnetic Fields is given a new sound first by Yasda. It's given dominant plucks and ghostly wails which draw our attention through a mist of rubbery bass and manic skies. Truly mind-boggling sounds emerge as part of a juxtaposition of character and flow. A matrix of strangeness grows in steady and graceful pockets of dream.

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Doxil takes the helm for the final version. The same track is redressed and spiced up once more. Thundering drums bounce from close-knit walls as damp cymbals slosh with juicy spray. Then a snare roll brings on a synth blast, highlighting a sense of pressure. Everything changes, a classic trance piano riff shines on, chords played repeatedly and to a jangling rhythm bubble and roil as their tone is thrown from effect to effect. Catchy drums with great breaks maintain a fun and spiky version that's set to make people dance.


You can listen to Urgula on Soundcloud


And get the EP from Bandcamp